Downtown developer Weston Urban has purchased a historic building across the street from City Hall with plans to rehabilitate its second floor into creative office space, just as its new Frost Tower takes shape a block away.

The developer bought the quarter-acre property, at the northwest corner of Flores and Commerce streets, on Aug. 31 from another locally-based partnership that had owned it since 2003, county property records show.

The building’s second story, which has been vacant for some time, will support about 10,000 square feet of office space, Weston Urban President Randy Smith said. He declined to share the purchase price.

“There’s just a ton of demand for that size of really unique, really special product,” he said. “Our vision behind buying (the building) was we just think that Flores and Commerce is a very important intersection for downtown, for our community, for what we’re doing.”

The first floor of the building, which was constructed in 1915, is now home to a 7-Eleven, a MetroPCS cell phone store and a VIA Metropolitan Transit information center. Weston Urban wants to create a mix of retail options there to support downtown residents and workers, Smith said.

The purchase increases Weston Urban’s presence in an area of downtown that it is already set to dominate as a result of a public-private partnership it entered into with the city in 2015.

As part of the partnership, the firm is expected to take ownership by late next year of about 1.5 acres of parking lots owned by Frost Bank on the same block as the recently-purchased building. Later, it will also acquire the city’s Municipal Plaza building on Commerce Street, where City Council meetings are held.

Weston Urban isn’t yet sure what it wants to do with those properties, Smith said.

The firm recently installed the distinctive crown atop the new Frost Tower it is building as the new headquarters for Frost Bank. The tower is expected to be occupied by next summer, Smith said.

Two blocks east of the new Frost Tower, Weston Urban is in the process of rehabilitating the Milam Building into office space with retail on the ground floor, Smith said. That work will be done in about a year, he said. The firm is also renovating space in the basement of the Rand Building to give Geekdom room to expand.